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Newsom is positioning himself for a Presidential run in 2028 (or, who knows, 2024 if Biden keels over). He's started a meaningful statewide initiative targeting retail crime, and he's bashing SF leaders for failing to deal with the homeless issue and perpetually kicking the issue down the road (yes, ironic, I know). But I applaud unprincipled politicians who do things that people will benefit from purely for electoral reasons, because that's at least better than the status quo.
The fact that Gavin Newsome is even considering a presidential run and that there are people who think this is a good idea is a massive black pill for me.
California has got a practically divine set of advantages:
Some of the best geography in the world. Temperate climate, massive mountains which create plenty of fresh water for both the coastal cities as well as the extremely fertile central valley.
A massive coastline
The 20th century saw Entertainment and tech, some of the most lucrative industries in our country, base themselves in California.
Not much in the way of natural disasters. Some earthquakes and wildfires, but the wildfires are arguably California's fault, and the earthquakes dont' seem to be much of a problem for a 21st century city.
Despite having the money for it, the desire for it, and near total control of the government meaning free rein with the funding to pursue basically any policy they want, California feels like a failing civilization. Californians and the politicians they elect have squandered the biggest head start of anybody ever, and still instead of reflecting on their obvious failures of their ridiculous policies, they just keep doubling down.
The Central Valley is more fruits, vegetables, and nuts. Corn and wheat are easier to harvest, so middle-class farmers can own the farm and buy a mechanical harvester or something. Fruits, vegetables, and nuts benefit from intensive manual picking, so farm owners hire outside labor.
The agricultural products that Central Valley and Mediterranean climates produce are very difficult to mechanize. Cereal crops are quite simple - while John Deere and Cargill are making it harder to eke out a freehold living as a farmer or dairy owner, it has been possible to save, invest, and eventually own your own farm through mechanization for decades.
Almonds, olives, strawberries, cherries, apples, oranges - all of these have been notorious for difficulty of mechanizing. Fruit trees, even monoculture and hybridized ones, will have fruit ripening at different times. By the time the fruit falls to the ground, it's not salvageable.
A dark, open secret on the West Coast is that our agricultural richness is only possible through subverting minimum wage laws. The only way we can have Fujis for $2/lb is because of shared common interests between the Democrats and Republicans in power. Democrats in Washington are heavily-union backed, and the unions have their roots in perpetuating marginalization of immigrants. They turn a blind eye to the poverty wages and intimidation tactics that enforce an underclass of Mexican and Central American laborers that destroy their bodies to give us cheap fruit.
Excuse me but...what?
And a massive coastline in itself means nothing. Indonesia also has one, Greenland as well.
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I wonder if California is the biggest argument against open borders. My understanding (which is probably wrong) is that California until the early 90s was the beach boy California (hell Ronald Reagan was governor and easily won the state during elections) until a lot of migration changed it. That changed the voting dynamic leading to present day California.
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In fairness that’s mostly pre-Gavin Newsome.
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FYI they even have pirates now.
https://abc7news.com/oakland-estuary-marinas-pirates-us-coast-guard-boats-pirate-attacks-shipwrecks/13779792/
I've checked the article, and the other one linked in it. It's rather misleading to call these crimes 'piracy'.
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On the other hand, media spin can do a lot with a slick looking fella.
Yeah. He speaks clearly and as far as politicians go looks great. The media would give him a great tail wind. Why shouldn't he take a chance at the presidency?
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